CLARE Short has dismissed Alastair Campbell's attacks on her in his diaries as the words of a bully.

CLARE Short has dismissed Alastair Campbell's attacks on her in his diaries as the words of a bully.

The MP for Ladywood said she was not surprised by the comments made about her by Mr Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, who published his diaries this week.

But she said Mr Blair actually got on well with her, despite their strong disagreements.

The diaries recorded Mr Campbell's nine years working with Mr Blair, including the period leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and Ms Short's decision to resign from the Cabinet in May of that year.

Mr Campbell accused her of being rude, and reports that the former Prime Minister described her as "disgusting".

He said another Cabinet colleague described her as "a bag lady", and claimed he and Mr Blair once joked about shooting her.

Ms Short claimed: "It is fairly predictable. He is a biased witness.

"He tried to bully everyone into doing whatever he said, and if anyone defied him he would do them over in the media.

"That is the way he has always used the media, to rubbish people, and that is what he is doing now with his diaries."

She added: "Tony and I, in a way, had always got on.

"The truth is that the Cabinet didn't operate.

"Everyone was bullied into submission and I was one of those that wouldn't be bullied.

"Tony and I got on with each other in our own way."

She said there was never a real debate in the Cabinet over Iraq, and this illustrated the weaknesses in Britain's current constitutional arrangements.

"Real change needs electoral reform so we don't get the same kind of majority in the Commons for any party."

Tony Blair received the support of only 22.5 per cent of people eligible to vote in the 2005 General Election but still had a clear majority in the Commons, she said.

"We would have a different type of politics if Tony Blair had to use his charm to obtain a majority."

Mr Blair's frustration with Ms Short emerged in a meeting of the Cabinet on April 9 2003, following the invasion of Iraq, according to Mr Campbell.

He recorded in his diaries: "War Cabinet, signs of regime collapse were all round now. It was still not clear where Saddam was but he and Chemical Aliz were both alive. Clare was rabbiting on more than ever. I slipped TB a note about the time Saddam shot his health minister at a meeting because he was annoying him, and did he want me to get a gun?